


Secrets of a Frozen Dawn

by Takatalvi



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst and Feels, Blood Mages, Cousins, Family, Fear, Free Marches (Dragon Age), Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, Magic, Origin Story, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition, Protectiveness, Templars, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:29:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16424186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takatalvi/pseuds/Takatalvi
Summary: Thomas Trevelyan had always known he’d be a Templar. He’d always known that his cousin would devote her life to the Chantry as a Sister. As younger members of House Trevelyan, this was their unquestioned destiny. Their pure devotion to this destiny never faltered, until one day, everything changed. Prologue to DA:I





	Secrets of a Frozen Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Lately I've been in the mood to write something, so I decided to try writing some Dragon Age fanfiction. This is a prologue to the game and largely sets in stone how my Male Trevelyan feels about magic and templars. This is a stand-alone prologue but if I still feel the itch, I may continue it. At that point, I will update the tags with any romance that the story would have in the future. 
> 
> *Please note that I rated the fic as M due to a graphic scene that describes corpses (including children), please let me know if you think I should change the rating*

 

Thomas Trevelyan had known from a young age that he would become a Templar. As the third son of Bann Trevelyan of Ostwick, it had been his destiny. He had watched since he was a child as his older brother and sister were groomed for a life at court, where it was their destiny to continue on the Trevelyan name to future generations. While Thomas was learning how to wield a sword and being versed on Chantry doctrine, Sean and Mary Trevelyan were attending dinner parties and courting other nobles in the hopes of securing future marriage alliances.

That’s not to say that Thomas was jealous. While he adored listening to his older brother speak about trips to the large cities of Kirkwall and Starkhaven, he was much more interested in hearing about the grand adventure and danger that could be found in any alleyway than the whims and fancies of other nobles. To someone like Thomas, who had never left the much smaller city of Ostwick and its outer farmlands, Kirkwall sounded magnificent. When training with Ser Bastion, captain of his father’s guard, he would often imagine that he was patrolling the Circle at Kirkwall, hunting out dangerous blood mages and protecting the citizens from the Malificarum.

This was a fantasy that had positioned itself in his dreams since he was old enough to have ambitions. His mother would read him tales of famous Templars who devoted their life to the Chantry and kept Thedas safe from apostates who could turn into abominations at any moment. His mother would solemnly tell him that one day, it would be his duty to uphold the word of the Maker and hunt down all abominations. His loyalty and devotion to his calling never once faltered, not until one frozen dawn when everything changed.

   
Thomas’ cousin, Catalyna Trevelyan, had been his first friend. Born mere days apart, they had rarely spent a day devoid of each other’s company. While Thomas had been raised to accept his future duty as a Templar, Catalyna had been raised to accept her future duty as a Chantry Sister. Like Thomas, she too was a younger member of House Trevelyan who wasn’t expected to inherit any titles or further the Trevelyan name in any capacity. While only the second child of Lord Roland Trevelyan, her father was already the younger brother to Thomas’ father, therefore her position in the family was even less than Thomas’ own. Resigned to their fates, Thomas and Catalyna spent their childhood memorizing the Chant of Light, hoping to make their family proud in other ways.

When they weren’t surrounded by religious tombs or being tutored by House staff, they were often outdoors, exploring the countryside that Bann Trevelyan presided over. As they didn’t get to accompany the more senior members of the family on diplomatic trips, they became quite acquainted with the local people. It was here that Thomas discovered his love of helping people.

It didn’t matter that these people were considered to be peasants, while he himself was their young Lord. He hadn’t had the same upbringing that his older brother and sister had where they believed themselves to be above the common folk. Instead, he saw the future people that he would be sworn to protect. As such, Thomas, and a somewhat more hesitant Catalyna, spent their formative years running errands for the farmers and villagers of the bannorn.

“Someday these people will be our equals,” Thomas would declare when Catalyna began to protest that rummaging through manure was beneath them. “I will be a Templar and you will be a Sister and together we will protect the world and bring enlightenment to its citizens.”

Catalyna would often huff in response to these outbursts, but she would continue to follow her cousin, as she always did.

It continued like this for most of their childhood. Sean, Mary and Catalyna's older brother Oswald Trevelyan, as the future scions of the noble House, would be whisked away more frequently as their noble duties took them all over Thedas, while Thomas and Catalyna remained behind. It was on one such morning, not too long after the manure incident, when everything changed.

Thomas and Catalyna had just turned fifteen. Their initiation into the Chantry and Templar Order was only a few years away, so they were devoting most of their time to their studies. Thomas had even began to entertain light patrols with the House Guard and Catalyna has started volunteering in the Chantry library. Even with their new responsibilities, Thomas still emphasized the need to be there for the local residents. Thomas, having woken up extra early that morning, dragged Catalyna out into the frigid morning where a fresh blanket of snow covered the ground as far as the eye could see.

“Thomas,” Catalyna said while shivering from the cold. “Please tell me we have a good reason for being out here. The sun isn’t even out yet!”

Thomas responded by giving Catalyna a reassuring grin as he handed her a pair of wool gloves and a scarf. Catalynia rolled her eyes, but she put them on without further protest.

They set out across the frozen landscape in silence, too cold to risk energy on the pleasantries of conversation. The two moons of Thedas illuminated the way in front of them, revealing the road that had already been cleared by Ostwick’s maintenance workers. It wasn’t long before they were outside the gates of the Trevelyan estates and surrounded by the bitter desolation of the snow-covered rural farmlands, with only the sound of the crunching of the snow beneath their feet to accompany them.

It wasn’t long before they reached their destination, although the frosty cheeks and chilly toes made it feel like ages. Thomas had them stop in front of a tattered farmhouse that looked out of place on the pristine wintry landscape before them. The two teenagers had spent a lot of their spare time in summer and fall trying to improve the dingy dwelling and had so far managed to replace the windows and board up the side paneling.

“Mrs. Hager’s place?” cried out Catalyna in exasperation. “I thought we were finally done here!”

“Oh come on,” replied Thomas as he started toward the house’s front door. “You know how she is since old Niklas died and her sons went south to Ferelden. She’ll never survive the winter if we don’t help her.”

“But,” said Catalyna with a moment of hesitation before following after her cousin. “We already installed new windows, fixed her walls, repaired the fireplace, cut down firewood _and_ hired those dwarves to rebuild the barn for her animals. What more is there to do? I know that sometimes it feels otherwise, but we _are_ still of noble blood. Do you think the Prince of Starkhaven bothers to help the widowed old ladies?”

“Look Cat,” said Thomas as he outstretched his arm and pointed to the front of Mrs. Hager’s house. “How is this “widowed old lady” supposed to survive the winter if she can’t even get to the market?”

Catalyna’s eyes followed to where Thomas was pointing and even though she wanted nothing more than to be back in her warm bed within reach of her private fireplace, she couldn’t help but conclude that her cousin was right. It seemed that in the countryside outside of a Noble’s estates, only the main roads were cleared of snow. The entire front yard of Mrs. Hager’s house was still covered in a thick blanket of snow.

“Alright,” conceded Catalyna, as she almost always did. “I guess it can’t hurt to clear a path for her to walk on. You really need to stop trying to help everyone though. I don’t think an initiate in the Templar Order is going to go around shoveling snow or digging through manure.”

“Well this one will,” replied Thomas with his signature grin. They reached a collapsing white picket fence off to the side of the farmhouse. Two shovels were leaning against the fence and Thomas quickly passed one to Catalyna.

“You had already planned this!” she said with a shout that echoed across the wintry valley.

Thomas had the foresight to look sheepish as he said “well okay, maybe I promised to help her out here and there when it started to snow. I just didn’t think we’d get so much all at once! I can’t recall ever seeing this much in my entire life. You’d think we were in the Frostbacks!”

Catalyna shook her head as she began to shovel the snow in front of Mrs. Hager’s doorway. She knew her cousin had a big heart and wouldn’t be able to rest if someone in the vicinity needed his help. She often thought it was unfair that it was Thomas’ older brother Sean who was set to inherit the bannorn. She truly believed that Thomas was the epitome of what a good noble should be: kind, considerate and passionate about his home and all who lived in it. She did, however, concede that Thomas’ tendency to assume everyone would agree with his plans was probably a pretty negative personality trait for a Bann. She imagined Thomas’ passionate personality would probably ignite a few battles, if not wars. The thought of Thomas being in charge of the Trevelyan lands made her giggle despite the fact that her fingers were going numb and she could no longer feel her toes.

“What are you laughing at?” asked Thomas with a raise of his eyebrow.

“Oh nothing,” sang Catalyna with a smile. She was about tease him and tell him he looked like their new Nevarran farmhand when a shrill shriek echoed out from somewhere south of them.

“Did you hear that?” asked Thomas.

“It was probably just an animal. Maybe a nug is stuck in the snow.” But Catalyna’s heart was pounding. She had never heard an animal make such a high-pitched noise. She knew what was coming, her cousin would want to go investigate. She had to diffuse the situation before they ended up getting lost in the woods next to Mrs. Hager’s house.

“Someone could be in trouble!” insisted Thomas.

“So then we’ll go get someone,” suggested Catalyna. “The sun will be up soon. Look, you can already see how light it is on the horizon. We’ll go home and get Ser Bastion to take a look.”

“By the time we get there and back, someone could have died.” Said Thomas as he spun around to look at her. She could tell by the indignant look in his eyes that this was not a battle she would win. No, someone needed help and Thomas would not, could not, back down.

“You can go get Ser Bastion,” he continued. “I’m going to see what that was and help if I can.” With that, he placed his shovel back against the fence where they had found it, and stalked off into the crusty snow-covered forest. Catalyna knew she couldn’t abandon her cousin to whatever made that noise, and it wasn’t long before she followed after him.

If Catalyna could only use one word to describe the gloomy forest, she would have instantly chosen the word dark. Although the sun had been beginning to rise, there was no evidence of that within the forested realm. Instead, she could barely see directly in front of her and was momentarily worried she had lost her cousin. The cold dampness of the forest seeped into her bones and she felt her breath hitch as she began to panic. She wanted to call out to her cousin but was afraid that whatever otherworldly creature made that noise would find her.

“Thomas?” she whispered, not liking the shake in her voice that let whatever lived in the forest know how scared she was.

“Catalyna,” replied her cousin, and all at once she knew something was wrong. Not only had he called her by her complete first name, but his voice, normally so calm and filled with confidence, sounded _scared._ “Do you see that?”

She felt her entire body fill with dread, not wanting to see whatever made Thomas sound so frightened. She had never once heard her cousin’s voice sound so shocked, so small.

“No,” she replied, not sure how she managed to even speak. “I can’t even see _you._ What’s going on?”  

“Cat, I think something really bad’s happened.” He said, and she noticed that his voice almost _squeaked_.

“What?” she asked, wishing that there was some kind of light to let her see what was going on. It was bad enough that something had managed to frighten Thomas so badly, but she couldn’t even see if they were in danger or not. She was completely blind and dangerously close to collapsing from fear and the cold of the polar domain.

“Follow my voice Cat,” she heard her cousin say. “We have to get out of here.”

Those words only continued to fill her body with dread and she was no longer sure if the icy feeling in the pit of her stomach was due to the fact that she was outside on the coldest day of the year or if it was from fear. She managed to do as her cousin asked however, and turned in the direction of her cousin’s voice.

“Thomas?” she whispered after realizing that it had been awhile since her cousin last spoke. Had something happened to him? Was she to die here, cold, alone and blind in this eerie forest where she couldn’t even hear the familiar sound of birds? She couldn’t hear anything apart from the snow under her feet and her heart pounding in her chest.

“Thomas?” she called again, but still there was no reply.

“Cat, please be quiet,” said her cousin right in front of her. His voice was barely a whisper and it was a miracle she heard him at all. “I’m so sorry I dragged you in here.”

It was then that she noticed the flicker of light coming from the distance. With how dark it had been only moments before, it was if magic was what was preventing her from seeing it sooner. That thought brought another chill to her already frozen bones. Wanting to ask what was going on, but not wanting to risk whatever was scaring her cousin so badly, she instead focused on the flickering light in the distance.

She had believed that that it was impossible for her to feel any more frozen, but she had been wrong. Upon realizing what it was she was looking at, she felt her entire body turn to ice.

“By the Maker,” she gasped involuntarily.

She felt Thomas’ hand reach for her own and squeeze it gently, as if trying to offer some semblance of impossible comfort.

“I’m so sorry,” Thomas said again with another squeeze of his hand.

Catalyna shut her eyes tight, wishing to block out what she had seen but unfortunately the image was burned into her mind.

The flickering light was that of a torch that had fallen to the ground and whose ember was slowly going out due to the surrounding snow. It had not gone out enough to stop illuminating the scene from directly behind it, however. Instead, it showed in great detail the remains of what had probably been a happy family of people. Catalyna could see a woman whose body had been partially devoured, a man whose intestines where hanging out with his decapitated head lying on a nearby tree stump. She could see the corpses of two small children in a similar condition, one not much older than a baby. They had been dressed up in clean and expensive looking clothes. Catalyna had even been able to make out Orlesian dresses underneath the outer garments of the adult woman and her older daughter. She couldn’t help but recall how those dresses were now covered in blood and internal organs. There was an electric taste to the air that Catalyna unfortunately knew was an indication of magic. She suspected, with a sinking feeling in her stomach, that this was the work of blood magic.

“Oh!” said a voice nearby that she knew at once was not her cousin’s. This voice was as unnatural as the shriek that had brought them here. “More friends have come to play!”

“Who are you?” she heard her cousin shout, all of his confidence returning at once as he was presented with a foe that he wanted to bring to justice.

“My my,” croaked the disturbing voice of a being she had yet to see. She noticed it sounded vaguely feminine and wondered if they were dealing with an apostate witch.

“Show yourself, Witch!” cried her cousin, evidently he had come to the same conclusion.

“Ha!” laughed the voice. “Such a word to use. Would you still use this word if you knew the secret your cousin has been hiding from you? Hm, I wonder.”

She felt Thomas’ hand clutch hers extra tight but it did nothing to calm the pounding of her heart. How did this creature know her deepest, darkest secret? Only her mother had been aware of Catalyna’s limited magical talents, but Catalyna’s mother had died the previous year. Since then, her magic had never again manifested.

“I will not fall for your tricks, abomination!” shouted Thomas, his loyalty to his cousin never faltering and for that she was glad.

“Tricks he says!” laughed the creature, its voice continuing to crack and deepen at odd intervals.

All at once an unnatural green light illuminated the area and she could see her cousin standing steadfast beside her, looking tall and confident in face of the danger surrounding them. She avoided looking once again at the mangled corpses somewhere in the distance and instead came face to face with Mrs. Hager. Or at least, it had been Mrs. Hager once upon a time. Where once she had looked like a sweet and kind lady who thanked them for their help with hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies, now she was broken and contorted with arms that were too long for her body, her aged-grey hair somehow an ashen black, her once pudgy cheeks were now hollow and decaying, and her comforting brown eyes were instead black and soulless.

“Mrs. Hager?” Catalyna said at the same time as Thomas whispered “what?” Both of their voices were beginning to shake.

“I don’t understand,” said Thomas, mortified. “Why you?”

All at once, the creature made a series of cracking sounds and Catalyna realized it was laughing. The sound almost made her throw up and she fell to her knees, letting go of Thomas’ hand and the only source of comfort she had left.

“Why me?” shouted the creature, obviously delighted at this conversation. “Did you know that woman over there had been having an affair with my husband?”

The creature started gliding around in front of them as it talked, and Catalyna realized with a start that it was floating.

“He confessed to me last year just before he died. Such a coward, he was. Had to wait until he was sure he wasn’t going to make it after his heart gave out before confessing his sins to me.”

The creature started making that same laughing sound as it glided closer to them. Catalyna noticed as it got closer that its fingernails looked like claws. She wondered if that was how it ripped apart the poor family.

“My sons left to go deal with whatever is going on in Ferelden, feeling more allegiance to their cousins in Ostagar than their poor ailing mother. Then you two came along, and at first things were great. I so enjoyed having you do what my own children would not. But then _she_ and her _family_ came back to town.”

It was when that the things mouth began to grow, its teeth lengthening and growing sharper, reminding Catalyna of the rodents she had seen in the fields. All the while, it kept creeping closer to them.

“Stay back!” shouted her cousin and he pushed himself in-front of her, as if to shield her from the abomination. The thing continued to cackle its deep and twisting laugh.

“It was then that _he_ came to me,” continued the creature. “Despair. I had always shown magical talent, not enough to alert the Templars and so I always thought I was safe from attracting the attention of spirits. Hm, actually, that reminds me, you know something about hiding magical affinity, don’t you Catalyna?”

“Don’t talk to her!” cried her cousin, and he stood up tall. Catalyna felt her entire body begin to shake and she was worried she was desperately close to losing last night’s dinner. She did not want to appear weak in front of the creature who knew her secrets however, and she forced herself to stand and face he creature. Its only response was to continue to laugh.

“That’s right little Catalyna, your mother came to me all those years ago and told me everything. “About how you could summon fire from your fingertips or calm the horses with just a touch of your hand. Little things, but magic just the same.”

“You’re lying,” said Thomas, but she could hear that his confidence was beginning to waver. She wondered, not for the first time, if he had ever suspected her true nature. He had to have noticed the little things. How despite her noble status, and characteristic Trevelyan chestnut brown hair and deep blue eyes, she had never favoured the attention of the other boys. Was she that unwanted, or was she using magic to keep them at bay? Perhaps Thomas had never noticed this peculiarity as they _were_ cousins who grew up more like siblings, but how could he not notice the static touch of her fingertips when she suddenly warmed them after a rainstorm, or the way she seemed to always be a bit too fast or just a bit too strong for a girl of her small stature. Of course, after the death of her mother last year, all of these abilities ceased. Maybe Thomas had convinced himself he had been imagining it. She looked up at her cousin’s own deep blue, Trevelyan eyes and saw in them that he was, in fact, questioning her. Would his hatred for mages be so strong that he would overlook the danger they were in just to focus on her?

“No,” said her cousin, rage in his face and hatred in his voice. “I don’t care. My cousin has never hurt anyone. You are a murderer! You will face justice!” And with that he turned from his cousin and faced the monster once more.

This, evidently, delighted the creature, who responded once again by laughing.

“You have two choices,” it said. “You can hand me your cousin and walk freely to whatever future you have created for yourself, or you can both die here.”

Thomas opened his mouth, about to retort just exactly what he thought about that scenario, when Catalyna shushed him by placing her hand on his arm and walking forward. She had been hiding her true nature long enough, it was time to show the world who she truly was.

“Cat!” she heard her cousin cry, and she closed her eyes. She had to do this. Her walking in the shadow of her cousin for long enough. It was time for her to take the lead.

 She continued walking forward until the sound of the creature’s laughter was directly in front of her. She could hear her cousin beginning to run up to her, and she _willed_ him to be put in place. She heard the sound of tree branches snapping and extending, followed by the frustrated cries of her cousin, and knew that her latent magic was back and more powerful than before. She wondered if somehow being in the presence of a despair demon was amplifying her magic and the thought made her stomach twist. Was she becoming an abomination? She swallowed the thought, afterall she was doing this to save her cousin. She couldn’t turn back now.

“Please,” she said, hoping that her cousin could hear. “Whatever happens, please remember me as I was – the happy girl who followed you everywhere and wanted nothing more than to make you happy in return. Don’t stop being who you are, don’t let this change you, too.”

And with that, she raised her hands and prayed to the Maker, to Andraste, to whatever god was listening, to let this creature burn. Perhaps it was the fact that all of her magical energy had been supressed for the better part of a year, or maybe the gods were favouring her in this moment, but all at once the creature stopped its cackling. Instead, it started wailing in agony, the sound of it seeming to fill the entire the forest. Catalyna watched as it began to flail as it erupted into fire. The sound seemed to go for hours, but Catalyna would not break eye contact, fearing that the spell would stop if she did.

And all at once, it was over. The creature, banished back into the Fade from whence it came, was gone. Instead, before her laid the corpse of Mrs. Hager, once looking just as kindly and grandmotherly as she did in life. There were no traces of her horrible death besides the burnt ground and melted snow surrounding her.

She heard faint sobs coming from behind her and realized that Thomas was crying. Before she could turn around and face her cousin, she felt a wave of exhaustion overcome her that sent her falling, and rendered her unconscious before she even hit the ground.

It wasn’t long before the Templars arrived. At the scene that was later to be dubbed the “massacre at Ostwick” the Templars discovered the mutilated remains of one respected farming family, the corpse of one highly valued Mrs. Hager, a tied up and delirious young Lord, and an unconscious human girl whose body wreaked of recent magic. The Templars declared that the entire scene was overcome with evidence of heinous blood magic. Despite the persistent cries by young Lord Trevelyan, who insisted that it was Mrs. Hager who had killed the family and that Catalyna had saved him, Catalyna Trevelyan was apprehended and sent to the Ostwick Circle. She had never even got to say goodbye to her family, or to explain to her cousin why she had hid her secret from him. In fact, she was not-so-politely informed that she would never see any of them ever again.

It was then that Thomas Trevelyan had disavowed his wish to one day become a Templar, for he now knew in his heart that not all mages were evil. The Templars didn’t care about justice, or they would have listened to his pleas. They didn’t care about order or reason. How else could they explain looking at his cousin and seeing nothing more than an abomination? They didn’t care about who she had been, only what she could turn out to be. They didn’t give her trial or a chance to explain her side. They just took her away. The Circle didn’t care that one day, Thomas had hoped to be a fearsome Templar who scoured the world for Apostates with his cousin, the Chantry Sister, at his side bringing enlightenment to all those who would listen.

And the Circle didn’t care about two cousins who wept for each other on a cold winter’s night.

 

 


End file.
